Hull City 0-1 Saints

Wanyama and Long made enough of a midweek cup opportunity at Stoke to retain their places in the Premier League line-up at Hull, although an injury to Mané may have had something to do with the latter.

They didn’t have to wait long before having a goal to celebrate, although it would have been nice if the team had faffed around for a couple more minutes as I made my way to the stadium, having spent too long in the bars of Hull’s surprisingly pleasant Old Town. SFC’s web site describes it as ‘Wanyama’s wondergoal,’ which is over-egging things a bit, but they give us plenty of opportunity to dissect the build up by offering a free video link. This shows Long (I think) and Pellè contributing as well by forcing Brady into a poor backpass and then stand-in keeper Jakupovic into a hasty clearance which Wanyama returned into the net from a considerable distance.

In truth Saints didn’t take full advantage of this start in the opening period and most of the action was in front of Forster, who nevertheless remained largely untroubled. The keeper would have been grateful to Bertrand for a timely clearance from near the line and Long’s speculative header over an advancing keeper was the other near miss before the break.

Saints were dominant after the turnaround, with City’s overall match stats showing just one shot on target (and that in the first half) while their midfield was overwhelmed by Southampton’s confident tackling and crisp passing. Jakupovic block-saved from Davis and then substitute Mané managed to get the ball over the bar despite hitting it into the ground from within the 6 yard box. Pellè wasn’t quite at his clinical best with his opportunity either, but we can count it as a satisfactory day out when the only complaint is that we couldn’t win by more away from home.

LSSC Man of the Match: Victor Wanyama, who can be awesome in games like this, quite apart from his goal. Plenty of support for Davis too amongst LSSC’s large travelling group.